Role Of An Elected Public Official At The Local City Level

The budgets process could help to spread resoursces that increase the skill to get best outcome.

Budget preparation is a process with designated groups and individuals having defined responsibilities. According to Irene S. Rubin “ The public budget process mediates between organizations and individuals who want different things and determines who gets what out of the budget.”1The Government set up an annual budget that includes people perspectives, opinions , accountability and than determine how the budget will get divided based on protected interests. Moreover, Public budgeting determines how government spend money, provide necessary resources , and limit government expenditures to prevent overspending.

I have always been interested in public service and how to help those in my community. In second grade, I became the representative for my class and it gave me a good appreciation for representing others. Later in Boy Scouts, I interviewed Penny Pink who had been appointed to the City Council and thought the position sounded really interesting. I am currently enrolled at Idaho State University for a Master’s degree in Public Administration and have come to believe that public service is essential for community growth and stability.

Planning is a function that is employed by every organization in projecting the future outcome of the firm. Successful firms achieve their goals through the use of different types of budgets. These budgets include, production budget, sales budget, labor budget and expenses budget. These budgets also show the targets that should be achieved by the firm within the budgeted time plan.

Public Finance is the role of government in the economy. Transparency and accountability in government financial management is crucial. The reading, “Understanding New York City’s Budget” references that due to government spending of taxpayer money to operate various services, several checks and balances such as Audits, City Council Oversight, Mayor’s Management Report (MMR), and Program Evaluation were put in place for accountability. The adherence to policy, procedures, rules, regulations and laws are important when compliance and integrity is the goal.

The impact that mayors have in cities across the U.S. vary greatly depending on the role mayors play within local government and the external factors that are particular to the time they are in office. The structure of municipal governments affect the type of power of mayors have, while other factors such as the demographic makeup of mayors as well as their constituents influences the extent to which they can leverage their power. In addition, economical influences from local businesses as well as internal financial constraints also determine what types of policies that are implemented and which policy areas are most focused on. Though many factors help shape a mayor’s ability to perform, the mayors who have the most influences are those who

Every city proceeds to conduct business as usual during the week. They maintain a corporate level of organization with a legislative infrastructure. Mayors are usually tasked with keeping up the city and state up to date based on budgets available. Weighing in on the pros and cons of the suggestion of the budget can have a negative or positive impact on the outcome. People who are in this type of leadership role, learn to exercise their abilities to maximize potentials for the best interest of the city.

Counties, they were created to subdivide states and evenly distribute law and power at the local level. However, did you know that the Constitution doesn't even mention local governments and therefore, all local government’s power comes exclusively from the state governments that establish their duties. At a county level, essentially everything is run by the citizen voters.

For a person to find out where all the town money goes, and what it is spent on, would be imperative for my area. This could show the community what our city is spending the money on and what we do not need to spend money towards. If the community does not want money coming out of the education system, they will be able to see what elements in the city that is taking from the school funding. Also, they may see if our city is making the right decision by taking money out of the school financing or if the community needs to come together and to make other spending stop.

All cities, especially right now, are facing fiscal challenges, how would you address balancing the budget and consider various alternatives and trade-offs?

Randy Swanson, representing the Fifth Ward, has been on the Town Council for the past eight years. He is currently in his final year of his first full term. In 2008, Swanson was chosen to fill an unexpired term due to a former Council member resigning. “I was appointed to fill the vacancy created when someone left,” says Swanson. In 2012, Swanson ran for reelection for his fourth and final term.

According to Smith and Lynch (2004), expenditures and revenues represent as essential guidance for all departments and organizations to prepare a reasonable budget. Also, revenues and expenditures give specialist a reliable and valid opportunity to estimate the needed resources for the future (Smith and Lynch, 2004). This means successful guesses will be effectively proposed in the building the budget. Moreover, expenditures and revenues play an important role in building a balanced budget in terms of the State and local government, because they help the specialist to make educated decisions (Smith and Lynch, 2004). Equally important, is the necessity of expenditures in creating alignment with econometric models. According to Smith and Lynch, "… at the state level, analyst directly relate service expenditures to the state economy, and they relate education and criminal justice expenditures to state demographics and economic factors. They use models not only to predict likely expenditures but also to help policy makers understand the most sensitive factors that influence each functional activity". As Smith and Lynch mention, revenues and expenditures create a solid base of accountability culture inside any business whether it is private or governmental because each

According to Hayes & Chang (1990), most city governments in U.S. belong to either the mayor-council form or the council manager form of government. First, the mayor-council form of government which is usually is adopted in large cities (Svara, 2008) comprises two branches. The first is an executive branch with a mayor elected by public vote who can appoint and fire the city officials with his or her authority without council approval. And the other is a legislative branch which usually consists of 5 to 9 city council members. The second form of the government is the council-manager form which has a legislative branch elected by public vote which hires professional city managers. These managers take the administrative responsibilities. In this

The elected leaders of the council represent their community and are responsible to ensure the overall operations of the municipality. Day to day oversight of the local agencies is granted to the manager who can carry out policies of the elected to ensure maximum effectiveness of services. This authority allows the local manager to be able to conduct the work of the elected in a flexible method which best meets the need of the citizens. The process of accountability and review within the local government allows for rapid response to address short term community plans and short term goals. As the government becomes closer to the citizens it becomes more accountable for its

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) budget criteria framework covers 27 budgeting categories and was launched in 1984 to encourage the preparation of high quality budgets (Bland, 211). The following memo evaluates the budget of the City of Lake Oswego using GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Criteria, and also compares it to the budget of the City of Detroit.